Disaster risk reduction the Taiwanese way
by Arlene Lusterio
Taiwan is located north of the Philippines and is the recipient of many typhoons that leave the country. It is also sandwiched between the Luzon-Philippine and Euro-Asia tectonic plates. Taiwan is exposed to four out of five natural hazards: typhoon, flood, earthquake and debris flow. Some of the worst disasters that have hit Taiwan are the Chi-Chi Earthquake on September 21, 1999 which had a magnitude of 7.3; the flooding due to Typhoon Nari in 2001 which shut down subway systems and the function of the whole city of Taipei; and debris flow in Central Taiwan in 2004.
The Taiwanese have strived to learn from these disasters. For example, the damage done by the 1999 earthquake has been preserved in the Earthquake Museum (left photo) in Tai Chung City. The actual ruins of a school housed in the museum show how buildings respond to seismic forces. Findings from research on the ruins of the earthquake have served as guides in structural designs of buildings after 1999.
An Emergency Operations Center was also established in each city to respond to emergency situations and serve as a hub for emergency operations. For example, Taipei has an Emegency Operations Center (EOC) housed in a building built just for disaster response, which can withstand an intensity 7 earthquake. It uses top of line technology and real time monitoring of emergency situations with support from scientists and technical experts from the National Taiwan University. It has a conference room where experts can meet in times of disaster and a special room for the commander or the county mayor. It has a 24-hour monitoring system, and disaster response can be initiated with back up power supply. They even have sleeping quarters so the emergency operations staff can work in shifts.
The National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) is the national agency responsible to address disaster reduction. Under the NCDR is the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau (SWCB) that responds to problems concerning soil and water such as debris flow and flooding. The SWCB can send a water pump to a requesting municipality to supplement pumping out of water in case of floods within 10 minutes from the time of request. If they fail the officer directly on top of the assignment gets demoted.
Apart from these, the Taiwanese spend NT$10M per meter (equal to PhP 130M) on the repair of dikes each year to protect coastal settlements in the south western seaboard of Taiwan with residents who refuse to move away from the coast. They don’t rely on rain gauges to measure rainfall; they measure rain before it hits the ground using radars, and confirm the data with actual rain gauge measurements thus continually improving the accuracy of data and data gathering methods.
Disaster reduction in Taiwan is a marriage between science and technology (academe) and government with the society (people) as active or participating witnesses. It is knowing what to do and sharing the knowledge with the people first by asking them what they need and building their capability according to their need so they could act before a disaster hits.
Information is indeed power, and that power could save lives.
_____
This article was written after Arch. Arlene Lusterio attended the International Training Workshop on Typhoon and Flood Disaster Reduction held last May 2008 in Taipei, Taiwan.
Disaster Risk Management | rp | 12 September 2008 |
1 Comment
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
By leila shahmalapoor, May 28, 2010 @ 2:53 pm
hi.I wanna design an earthquake museum.please give me some information about some kind of this category,if you have done it.